Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

HHAs grappling with new publicity.

Chances are more people than ever are thinking about home care, thanks to the launch of the Home Health Quality Initiative's Home Health Compare Web site.

After weeks of delays, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Nov. 4 ran 65 English-language advertisements and four Spanish ads in newspapers across the country. The ads highlighted home health agencies' individual outcome statistics for three of the 11 patient outcomes featured on the Home Health Compare Web site - bathing, ambulation and oral medications.

And starting Nov. 3, interested parties could look up 11 outcomes on the site itself. Previously, HHAs from only eight pilot states had their outcomes displayed on the site. Consumers also can access the information by calling 1-800-MEDICARE.

In addition to the full-page ads CMS purchased, dozens of newspapers including the Washington Post and the Kansas City Star ran articles on the measure, which often were picked up by the Associated Press and distributed to smaller papers.

The relatively high volume of mainstream press coverage was due in large part to efforts by the Department of Health and Human Services, CMS and individual states' Quality Improvement Organizations, which issued press releases and coordinated press conferences and other media opportunities. National home care trade associations, state associations and individual HHAs also wooed press coverage.

HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson announced the launch at a Nov. 3 press conference. "Not only will consumers be better informed, but home health agencies themselves will be able to see more clearly what they must do to improve their care," Thompson said in prepared remarks. "Publishing this kind of quality information creates real incentives for health care providers to further improve the quality of care that they provide to their patients."

"Improving the quality of care given by [HHAs] is one of our top goals," Scully said.

QIOs have trained more than 70 percent of the nation's Medicare-certified HHAs - about 5,000 agencies - on quality improvement methods since mid-2002, says the American Health Quality Association, which represents the organizations.

If they haven't done so already, HHAs should check their information on the Home Health Compare site to make sure it is correct, experts advise. Instructions for correcting information are on CMS' HHQI Web site.

The Home Health Compare site is at www.medicare.gov. More HHQI information, including copies of the 69 ads that ran, are at www.cms.hhs.gov/quality/hhqi/default.asp.